Cornelius boosts its curb appeal

Doug Beghtel/The OregonianCornelius leaders spent 15 years planning street improvements for the town's main thoroughfare. Last year, the city rebuilt North Adair Street and added sidewalks. Design for West Baseline Street begins next week. Tom Evans, owner of Grande Foods, said the new sidewalks have made it easier for customers who use wheelchairs to get to his store.

CORNELIUS -- A few years ago, Console Arouse had to wheel her disabled son right alongside traffic if she wanted to get around town. A film crew documented one of their trips. There she is, pushing Juan's wheelchair down Tualatin Valley Highway, where 40,000 cars speed by every day.

Back then, Cornelius had only ditches where most cities have sidewalks. That's not true anymore. The city rebuilt North Adair Street, the westbound portion of the highway, last year. Now, construction companies are rebuilding smaller connecting streets. And next week, city leaders will unveil a design plan for improving West Baseline Street, the eastbound portion of Tualatin Valley Highway.

City leaders say the new streets led voters to approve a new gas tax in March and will hopefully lead Metro councilors to name downtown Cornelius a "town center" -- a designation that brings greater clout for transportation projects. Residents say the change is transformative, proof that Cornelius can be better.

Jose Orozco, a Cornelius resident who runs a blog about construction on the town's new Walmart, said it's impossible to stress how important the improvements have been for residents.

"It might just be sidewalks, lighting, benches and trash cans to other cities," he said. "But to Cornelius, it's a pretty big deal, an opportunity to improve."

Cornelius leaders knew 15 years ago that the roads needed upgrades. The town of 11,000 has the highest rate of low-income and Latino residents in the county -- two groups likely to include more walkers because of cultural or financial reasons. The town is also home to a large population of people with disabilities, and the lack of sidewalks was unsafe for families like the Arouses.

View full sizeDoug Beghtel/The OregonianCornelius has a large population of walkers, and the new sidewalks and crosswalks have made getting around town safer for walkers, bicyclists and parents with strollers.

But a decade after city leaders developed the 1994 Main Street Improvement Plan, the roads remained mostly unchanged. The city -- whose fledgling tax base is nearly 70 percent residential -- ran into funding roadblocks. Design and staffing issues caused delays, too.

By 2007, residents had written more than 1,000 letters to Metro, asking the regional government to approve $3.2 million in federal dollars to upgrade Baseline Street. Other residents created a video -- the one with Arouse pushing her son down the busy highway -- to persuade state policymakers to help.

Now, after cobbling together $20 million in federal, state, county and city money, Cornelius is starting to look like a new town. When Arouse takes Juan out these days, they move smoothly down a sidewalk, flanked by trees and steel benches.

"It has truly made a difference in how the community sees itself," says Richard Meyer, the city's development and operations manager. "Before, a lot of people really didn't expect much from Cornelius. This is nothing short of transformational."

Meyer said the street improvements have made the town safer, more like its motto: "Oregon's Family Town."

Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian Before reconstruction, most of North Adair Street (such as this section, pictured in 2007) did not have sidewalks.

Business owners agree that the improvements have changed the city for the better but with a caveat: The first round of construction nearly ruined business, they say. With more construction starting soon, they're worried they won't survive the improvements.

Tom Evans, the owner of Grande Foods and vice-president of the city's chamber of commerce, said three businesses moved out of the Grande Plaza during construction on Adair Street.

"Once the work was done, awesome. It looks great," Evans said. "But during the construction, it came really close to putting me out of business. The contractor was blocking our entrance all the time. I'm hoping the Baseline project doesn't do the same thing."

Evans said that despite the hardship the construction brought to his and other stores, he is excited by the change. Many of his customers and employees walk to the grocery store. One customer even rides an electric wheelchair from Forest Grove every day.

"With the sidewalks, it's safer for my employees and my customers," he said. "It's going to be better for everybody."